Titans of the New West: FAQ for Modders

This article will be updated as time goes on, when new features are added or more information is available.

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What does adding an armor to the mod do?
You can look at the mod as basically a framework for adding in very large power armors to the game. By adding an armor to the mod, you can make use of all of its features, like character scaling, weapon scaling and positioning, animations, all mod settings (Backpack remover, offsets, etc), H2H weapon fitting, pipboy integration, built in patches, plus any other new features in the future.

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How do I add a new armor?
First set up your armor normally as you would with any other armor: Make a new ESP plugin, create all necessary addons (helmet, armor addons, etc), set up your armor form. Skip this step if patching for an existing armor.

To add the armor to Titans, all you have to do is add the armor form to the main armor list (TNWArmorListAll) and one of the armor class lists (TNWArmorListEnclave, TNWArmorListHeavy, TNWArmorListMedium). The names of these lists have no bearings, and are merely used to scale the character at 114%, 112%, and 110% respectively, and for positioning the holstered weapon position nodes. The holstered nodes were calibrated for Remnants Armor, T51b, and T45d respectively. In the future I may implement a better solution to reduce clipping on other armors, as these lists were originally designed solely for the armors I listed.
    
As of 2.0.1, I've expanded the weapon nodes framework to allow for custom sets, which are currently used by Hellfire, East Coast Enclave, and NCR Armors. Armors that are not specified to use custom sets will still default to use the armor class lists. More on this later, for now let's stick to a simple mission of adding the armor.

To avoid compatibility and dependency issues, it's highly recommended to use scripting to add your armor, either with a traditional quest script or runner script (requires JIP NV Plugin). You can use the following commands:

• ListAddForm TNWArmorListAll MyPowerArmor
• ListAddForm TNWArmorListMedium MyPowerArmor
  

• Go to the kNVSE directory of Titans mod at "Titans of The New West\meshes\AnimGroupOverride", and copy the folder "TNW_ArmorMedium" and the TNW_Titans.json file to "*MyMod*\meshes\AnimGroupOverride". We'll be building off of these files as a template.
• Rename the pasted "TNW_ArmorMedium" folder as "TNW_ArmorType_MyPA"
• Open the pasted TNW_Titans.json file with a text editor, remove everything except one set of override, we'll leave the top one. Replace the folder and the condition check to refer to the new armor list, we'll call it "TNWArmorTypeListMyPA" for now, and we end up with this:
  

• Open the Titans plugin along with your armor plugin set as active
• Make a new form list called "TNWArmorTypeListMyPA" that we named earlier and add the new armor form(s) to the list.
• Locate the Titans scripted animation scripts under the Script category. "TNWScriptedAnimationMedium", "TNWScriptedAnimationHeavy", "TNWScriptedAnimationEnclave" are the base sets. "TNWScriptedAnimationTypeT45NPA", "TNWScriptedAnimationTypeEnclave", etc are the custom override sets. The script structure between them is identical, so we can just copy the content of "TNWScriptedAnimationMedium" into a new script. Change all the lines that refer to Medium armors to the new armor, and we get this:
  

• Bip01 Neck1 - Neck bone in default skeleton, used for scaling head size. (0.91 for Medium, 0.90 for Heavy, 0.88 for Enclave)
• SC Weapon - Node for weapon drawn (0.9091 for Medium, 0.8929 for Heavy, 0.8772 for Enclave)
• SC Weapon2HH - Node for minigun type weapon drawn
• SC Weapon2HL - Node for rock launchers drawn
• SC Spine2H - Node for holstered weapon on back
• SC PelvisHR - Node for holstered weapon on right hip
• SC PelvisHL - Node for holstered weapon on left hip
• SC WeaponH2H - Node for the rigid model of unarmed weapons
  

• Modeling the arms: The arms and hands of Titans models follow a different curvature than stock models that is moved a bit further away from the bones, to create the wider look. Reason for doing this as opposed to moving the bones themselves and keeping everything centered is not only for compatibility reasons, but most importantly, it would pretty much completely break all stock animations made with the default IK rig used in original game development. To get a similar effect in your armor, I would suggest importing some Titans' models to use as a reference point.
• Skinning the arms: Since the arms are off centered, plus power armors tend to have rigid, mechanical parts, there's little reason to make use of the twist bones, which are more suitable for smooth twisting in cloth and organic materials. In Titans, the Pipboy and H2H weapons are bound to the forearm bones rather than the twist bones (more on that in their own sections), so definitely avoid using those twist bones.
• Scaling the helmet: The helmet is scaled down along with the head, with the pivot set at the "Bip01 Neck1" bone, at 88% for Enclave, 90% for Heavy, and 91% for Medium. You may have to adjust the scale of the helmet to make it look just right in the game.
  

• Model your armor as you would normally / Have your armor you're working with imported and ready, import a pipboy model in as reference.
• Make a duplicate of the regular "PipboyOff" left forearm arm to be your "PipboyOn" arm.
• Model an open slot into this "PipboyOn" arm. Unless you want to use one of the pipboy location presets used for existing armors, it doesn't matter the slot's location exactly because the pipboy placement can be adjusted after the fact, I would just make sure it's big enough to show a pipboy that's at ~90% scale. The exact scale values used are 87%, 89%, 91% for Enclave, Heavy, Medium respectively.
• Import the male and female pipboy models, bind them to "Bip01 L ForeTwist" bone (or copy the transforms), you may have to rotate one of the axis 90 degree to make it correct if it's tilted back or something.
• Make two duplicates of the "PipboyOn" arm to be the fake arms, one for male and one for female. Fit them to the bound male and female pipboy models. Skin these to the "Bip01 L ForeTwist" bone. These will be used when accessing pipboy menu in 1st person, so you may want to model in some extra details in to make it look more appealing. This is done in all the stock Titans armors as well. I didn't want to put these details in the third person mesh as they would look a little bit too detailed compared to the rest of the mesh.
• Export.
  

• Name all of "PipboyOn"s parts "pipboyonTNW1", up to number 5 (so "pipboyonTNW1", "pipboyonTNW2", "pipboyonTNW3", and so forth).
• Name the fake arms "fakearm_m" and "fakearm_f", for male and female, set them to hidden (Flags under NiTriShape block, Bit 0).
• Optional: Too big of an upper arm may obstruct view and needs to be hidden, name that part "armsTNW1", up to number 5. (This is used in T51b)
  
  

• Make a new "TNWPipboyTypeList" formlist (ie. "TNWPipboyTypeListMyPA") and add the new armor(s), this list will be used to check whether to use the corresponding preset for currently equipped armor.
• Make a new "TNWPipboyTypeScript" object script (ie. TNWPipboyTypeScriptMyPA). Copy and paste the code from one of the existing ones ("TNWPipboyTypeScriptHellfire", "TNWPipboyTypeScriptEnclave", etc) to use as a template and change the armor check line to:
  
  

• Animations that move and scale the rigid model to fit, this is used for all mechanical fist weapons.
• Similar to Pip-Boy Integration, an on/off switch for hiding/unhiding models. There's one for regular body, and one for power armors. This is used for all other H2H weapons fitted in the mod.
  
  

• Model your weapon as you would for regular New Vegas characters / Have your weapon you're working with imported and ready
• Import the right arms of some or all of Titans' armor models to use as a guide for modeling and ensuring minimal clipping. For the purpose of this, I would use the arms of Remnants, T51b, and T45d.
• Make a duplicate of your weapon and model it after the shape of the Titans power armor arms. Up to 5 separate parts can be used here.
• Skin it/them properly, don't use the "Bip01 R ForeTwist" bone.
• Export.
  
  

• Name all the parts fitted for the normal body that need to be hidden when a power armor is equipped "h2hweapon1", up to number 5 (so "h2hweapon1", "h2hweapon2", "h2hweapon3", and so forth).
• Name all the parts that are fitted to power armor "h2hweaponPA1", up to number 5. Set all of them to hidden (Flags under NiTriShape block, Bit 0).